CROP Infrastructure’s (CSE: CROP) 30% owned Italy Joint Venture partner “XHemplar Italia” has planted 25 acres of high CBD/low THC content cannabis in northeastern Italy. This represents more than a 100% increase on the previously announced capacity announced in June.

This represents more than a 100% increase on the previously announced capacity announced in June.

XHemplar is a joint venture between CROP Infrastructure Stratto, LLC and AnCaPa SRL of the prominent Castiglione family.

This endeavor will be led locally by Giuseppe Castiglione, CEO of XHemplar, who has spent the past 30 years in National and International politics roles ranging from Vice President of Sicily, with special delegation on Agriculture and Industrial development, to member of the European Parliament where he acted as head supervisor of European Wine Reform, to Vice Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Politics for the Italian central government in three consecutive legislatures.

As an agricultural company XHemplar will benefit from a substantially lower tax rate of 4% VAT in Italy, a significant advantage in the company’s early stages.

The Joint Venture's resulting high CBD and low THC content cannabis, which it calls “Cannabis Light”, will be processed and sold into international CBD markets as a white label brand, as well as the joint venture's house name XHemplar and Crop’s brands Tiffany CBD and Hempire Italia.

Crop will also use the production to infuse its recently announced therapeutic and cosmetic product lines, under license from The Yield Growth Corp., giving Crop exclusive rights in Italy to over 55 wellness products.

According to Arcview Market Research and its partner, BDS Analytics, government-subsidized health care spending is expected to make Europe among the fastest growing and largest medical cannabis markets in the world.

Arcview expects Italy to be the second largest cannabis market in Europe by 2027 with $1.2 billion in sales.

Michael Yorke, CEO, stated: “The company is extremely encouraged by the fast pace with which the team at XHemplar has commenced production in Italy. CROPs portfolio of cannabis infrastructure assets now includes cultivation properties in California, Washington State, Nevada, Italy and joint ventures on West Hollywood and San Bernardino dispensary applications. CROP has developed a portfolio of 15 Cannabis brands and also has US and Italian distribution rights to a line of over 55 cannabis topical products. Management will continue to aggressively pursue new world-wide opportunities and expand its portfolio of tenant growers and infrastructure assets in strategic licensed jurisdictions.”

XHemplar Chairman and CROP Infrastructure VP of Mergers and Acquisitions, Andrea Castiglione stated: “This is a great start for the company in Italy. We are pleased by how quickly our joint venture team has worked together to begin this initial production.”

CROP is primarily engaged in the business of investing, constructing, owning and leasing greenhouse projects as turnkey real estate solutions for lease-to-licensed cannabis producers and processors.

CROP Infrastructure, which began trading on the CSE on March 13th, is trading at $0.29